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Fishers Island Sound in Connecticut

Trip Overview

Mystic is actually quite beautiful during the off-season, and we were glad to be some of the only non-locals in town. We made our way to Williams Beach, a YMCA-owned beach that was completely deserted. There are several places to launch in Mystic, but we chose the one closest to the ocean since we wanted to paddle out to Fisher's Island before turning back and checking out the historic seaport area. A driving rain started at this point, but it didn't bother us in our drysuits as we made our way out to the island.

We had the area completely to ourselves and we only saw one boat on the water the entire paddle. Heading out to Fisher's Island we encountered gentle swells that made paddling a pleasure. After a quick stop at the Latimer Reef Lighthouse to take some pictures we pushed on to the island against a surging tide that was funneled between tiny Wicopesset Island and the larger Fisher's Island, where we encountered a large family of seals that followed us for about 10 minutes.

Our progress back was fairly swift as the tide carried us back in to explore Mystic Seaport. Although the tall ships are fascinating, we were even more fascinated by the two drawbridges of strange (to us) design.

The Mystic River past the seaport is not terribly interesting, but the seaport itself is a gem; the ability to paddle up to wooden and steel sailing ships is unique to a kayak in this area and we were able to see the ships from every angle.